HCL gets nod to carry own exploration, FY19' capex at Rs 700cr

State owned Hindustan Copper Ltd has received government nod to become an independent copper exploration agency that would give a push to its mining expansion ambitions, a top company official said.

In order to boost its expansion projects, the company has decided to pump Rs 700 crore in the current fiscal, up from the Rs 589 crore capex in the previous fiscal.

"We just got clearance as an independent exploration agency exploration agency for copper under section 4A of MMDR Act. We are going to take exploration in a big way," Hind Copper chairman and managing director Santosh Sharma said here today.

Sharma said the company has been aggressively pursuing brownfield and greenfield mine development and expansion to jack up production.

Hind Copper will pump Rs 408 crore over at least two years to drill 2.48 lakh meters to explore deposits in the company's own blocks, he said.

Currently, the company has gone deep spreading on an average of 500 metres and would expand further and Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd is already doing some such jobs.

During 2017-18, Hind Copper had opened Kendadh mines in Jharkhand and commissioned new Banwas mine in Rajasthan and during the year production from these mines would be ramped up, Sharma said.

The Malanjkhand underground mine project is progressing as per schedule and was expected production from December 2018.

Sharma said the JV Chhattisgarh Copper Company has been formed with Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation to explore copper in the state.

Put together capex for the current fiscal would be Rs 700 crore against Rs 589 crore in the last year which was 47 per cent higher over 2016-17 of Rs 400 crore, he said.